Goodbye Oregon, Hello California! - 1690.0 mi to Campo

As I leave the lakes and deserts of Oregon behind I also leave a trail of destruction. The blood and deaths of 10,000 mosquitoes stains my soul. Yet, strangely, I feel no remorse. :) Ha ha, ok enough kidding around.

We finally got to California today! Woot! Made a big mileage day as well, logging in 26.4 mi! We celebrated our crossing into California in style - I had a Budweiser, Arij had a Snickers. Ran into another northbound thru hiker today, named "Odie." He had made it thru the Sierras!

Unfortunately, we find ourselves among cows again in California. In fact, there's a herd just ~ 200 yards away from our camp for the night. They're all armed with cowbells too - so much for a 'wilderness experience.'

Just 28 mi to our resupply!

Callahans - 1721.2 mi to Campo

Pretty crazy day yesterday. We got a semi-late start - I didn't get up until 7:15, but we cooked breakfast and broke camp in record time, hitting the trail by 8:15!

We hiked a lot on BLM & private land - jeep roads, trails with cows, etc. etc. Arij got bit by a wasp when she tried to open a gate at Hwy 66! It put a serious damper on her day. We had hoped to camp at a spring at 1728 mi, just outside Siskiyou, but had two problems arise. First, we were on private land! Second, the spring had dried up! So we pressed onward. We ditched our packs just off trail and decided to go to Callahan's for dinner.
Turns out, Callahan's also offers lodging (guide book neglects to note that!) we opted to stay there, a nice treat. Dinner was amazing. Fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, real meat, good beer... it was fantastic. I devoured just about everything in sight.

The room was great as well. Shower (not coin-op woot!), king sized bed, jacuzzi tub, robes. It was heavenly. It was amazingly restful, just lying on that bed. Breakfast was included with the room, so we stayed for that too. Fantastic. We should enter California tomorrow! Woo hoo!

Cyber Hikers and Sugar Coma - 1748.7 mi to Campo

Yesterday we met the first unpleasant people on the trail. A French (maybe Quebecois) couple were northbound on the PCT. They said they had made it through the Sierras too! But a few things didn't jive.

The girl had a huge attitude, as well as oversized Paris Hilton sunglasses. Not to mention the knee high gaiters. She also didn't know if they had a bug net with them, and threw a temper tantrum on the trail when we told them how bad the bugs were up ahead. They seemed very intent on who was where on the trail - so much so that they had stopped at an internet cafe in Ashland, some 10 miles off trail. And no, they weren't even resupplying there. Anyhow, they were insulting, "Oh, do you think you'll make it to Campo?", arrogant "Oh, North Cascades is easy in snow - just like the Sierras" and overall jerks. Total Cyber Hikers.

Anyways, enough ranting. We resupplied today at Hyatt Lake Resort. TINY store, but we got our fix. I ate 3 ice cream bars, 2 sodas and a Snickers promptly. Arij ate similarly, and we both entered a nice porch. Several hours later, we got up and gorged again - this time finding a huge, perfectly ripe avocado - it was delicious! The temp hovered around 92 degrees F in the shade all day. it was a good rest & resupply day, all in all. California, here we come!

Free at Last - 1780.6 mi Campo

Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty we're free at last of the Oregon mosquito horde. We made it to Fish Lake today, and according to all northbounders we've met, this is where they stop. So far, so good.

It's been quite some time since my last post; can't quite remember when I last wrote even! We managed to make it through our two long waterless days - we actually turned that bit into 3 days, hiking the 24 mi, then split the 26 into two 13 milers. A nice water cache at Hwy 138 sure helped!

We got to Crater Lake on the 21st. What an amazing place. Everytime I go there, my eyes have trouble believing what they are seeing. Hanging out at the lodge we met the first true northbounder, Scott. He was attempting to "yo-yo" the trail - hike it south to north, then north to south, all in one go. Crazy. He was hiking ~40 miles a day at that point. Said the Sierra's had been quite difficult. Surprisingly, his pack seemed to weigh just about as much as mine, ~25-30 pounds with 2 days food and water. He was also doing some filming of other thru hikers and we got interviewed.

We hitched from the rim down to Mazama, stopping at the PO along the way. Many thanks to the two nursing students, and to Mike! Arij and I are convinced Mike was CIA. Knew more than anyone should about the area, was ex-military etc etc.

Also ran into some other thru hikers at Mazama. The buffet at Mazama, btw, was great. First was a group of south bound Oregon section hikers - Tom, Sarah, and Dani. They were all Peace Corps buddies. Next was a group of 4 Quebecois - David and Antoine (brothers) and Gabrielle and Claudia. We camped with them at Mazama (thanks!)

Crazy story here now - David and Gabrielle had converted to the raw food diet while on the trail (northbound, they had skipped the Sierra's and North Calif.) Right before Arij and I left, we had Bill and Sarah and Anna over for dinner, Sarah told us about this family who had one day gone totally on the raw food diet, lost a ton of weight, then hiked the PCT in Tevas. Anyways, in the morning, they get a raw food delivery - from that FAMILY! Turns out they had met the family in Ashland and changed over. Crazy small world.

It's been blisteringly hot the last week or so - apparently hit 105 degrees F a couple of days ago! Yikes! Quite humid as well. Our mileage has been good though - hiked 25.3 mi yesterday, and did an easy 18.1 mi today. We're only ~ 30 mi from our next resupply at Hyatt Lake, and still have 2 days of food!

A few weeks ago Patrick inquired if I had ever really used the fork portion of my spork. After considering my answer was no. We had a bit of a laugh about how yuppie we were. We could have just carried lexan spoons. Now I know the reason I wanted to bring a spork. Patrick may soon be proliferated with spork wounds, he is really eyeballing my food and always begging. I have to fend him off with it!

I have a total of 4 toenails falling off in various stages. I think the only ones that may escape this trip are my baby toes.

Now I know the Leave No Trace motto is something like "Take memories, leave only foot prints," but I have to admit to leaving hundreds if not thousands of mosquito corpses. If I wrote a book about this section of the PCT, I would title it Bug Tales. Everything seems to be driven by the bugs. Patrick cracking his head, where, when, how we eat & sleep, go to the bathroom, EVERYTHING!

As Patrick said though we are in a no bug territory. I am not sure how to act. Today hiked 1/2 the day with my mosquito net uselessly on. I was afraid to take it off. I am taking baby steps though, I may try and hike in shorts tomorrow.

So I believe the purpose of Patrick taking me on this trip is to slowly kill me from methane poisoning. Now he has an explanation for his lethal doses. Dave, a N bounder we met, told him it is all the nuts & dried fruit fermenting to create an evil dose of butt. At the next resupply I am plotting to steal his apricots and gorp, I mean I have to survive, he is going to kill me soon. If I don't do something...

Dry Times Ahead - 1885.2 mi to Campo

Been quite some time since the last post. After the head-bonking incident our next two days were relatively low mileage - ~16 and 12. Arij left her sunglasses behind on the trail about 1 mi back from where we had camped at Stormy Lake, so I ran back and got them, making it 18 mi for me.

All the running was hard on my feet - running with some 25-30lbs is tough! I actually bot a blister under my big toe on my left foot - first I can remember in some 14 years. Luckily it was pretty much a fluke and healed up in just a couple of days.

When we got to Shelter Cove Resort on the 15th, our package was AWOL. There was a mix up and it got sent USPS instead of UPS. Finally we figured out that the owner was due to check the mail that Monday. We took a much needed rest day there at Lake Odell.

We ran into some segment hikers called Katz & Curses there. They were there with their support crew, camping and resupplying after skipping a snowy section. Katz had taken a bad fall earlier on snow and was having nothing to do with it! They were northbound and we shared our experiences of the trail ahead. Very kindly, they invited us to dinner and we were treated to a fantastic meal and plenty of beer and wine!

On Monday afternoon, we finally picked up our package and took a short hike - about 6 miles or so back onto the PCT.

Today we had some fantastic views. Thielsen, McLaughlin and Crater Lake are getting very close. Mt. Shasta continues to grow on the horizon. We also ran into a fellow southbounder. He was hiking solo and had started at Manning Park on June 20th. He ran into TONS of snow and barely make it to Rainy Pass. Like us, he had then opted ot skip ahead to oregon and had been just a day or two behind us for the last several weeks, catching us after our package delay at Lake Odell.

My new head net Rocks. I now laugh at the futile attempts the mosquitoes make. It even comes with a highly fashionable patch of camo fabric. $2.99 is a samll price to pay for sanity. We also stocked up on Oregon Holy Water at Shelter Cover (aka DEET).

We've got two long dry stretches ahead of us. Tomorrow we'll do 24 miles and only hit ZERO on trail water souces. We'll stop at Thielsen creek. Then we'll hike 26 mi the next day with ZERO on trail water shources, finishing up at Crater Lake. Ugh. Packs are gonna be heavy!

Boom! Headshot! - 1940.7 mi to Campo

Wow. Crazy day today. It started out early at Camelot Lake. We managed to hit the trail by aroiund 8:15am. We soon began our trip through the first of several large lake filled basins. The bugs were bad. No, bad isn't a strong enough word. The bugs were incessent. We could barely take breaks. They drove us to hike fairly rapidly too. By 12:45pm we pulled into Dumbell Lake. Already having craked out 11.8 mi, we took a long lunch. 2 1/2 hours long in fact.

Dumbell Lake was a bug free paradise. An oasis in a desert of bugs. I wanted to stay there all day long. We finally left the lake around 3:15pm. The bugs came back and with a vengenance.

Ballcaps are great for the most part. Today I had mine pulled down quite low over my forehead to ward off bugs. They keep the sun off great too. One bad thing is that they kill your vertical peripheral vision. So...

There we were, Arij in the lead, steaming uphill to keep ahead of the bugs. Head down to best keep the bugs from flying into my eyes/nose/mouth, I failed to see a log across the trail, suspended about 6' 2" off the ground. Unfortunately, I stand around 6' 4"... CRACK!!

Ouch that hurt. I head-butted that log at full speed. It was a draw, I'd have to say. It also opened up a good 3" long gash on my skull. So, for the next 45 minutes or so, Arij bandaged my skull. Glad we're both EMTs.

After than little episode, we continued our march into the heart of mosquito land. At one point, I took off my pack, set it down, and observed a swarm of probably 50+ mosquitoesland on my warm pack. I didn't need to snack today, enought were continually flying into my nose and mounth, I'm sure I was getting plenty of protein.

Anyhow, the bugs became so unbearable (even the DEET was barely holding them at bay) that we half walked, half ran the next 10 or so miles. Sadly, our camp here at Stormy Lake is horrifically infested.

Totally out of gas today. Gonna go sleep now. 23.5 miles - not bad, all things considered.

Rain & snow - 1964.2 mi to Campo

Second day out on the trail from BLYC and things are going quite well for the most part. First off, the scenery here in the Three Sisters Wilderness is Fantastic. I only hope our pictures capture a fraction of the beauty. We're making good time too, all things considered. Made 19.5mi on the first day, stopping about 2 hours early. Made only 17.9 mi today, but there was tons of snow - probably spent 70% of the day hiking on snow. To top it off, it rained off and on all day today. We're feeling quite soggy at the moment.

We got our first glimpse into California yesterday. From the slopes of Mt. Washington we could make out Mt. Shasta in northern California. Sure it's probably ~300 miles away, but we can at least see it!

Some fascinating volcano geology in the Three Sisters region. South Sister itself has over 24 kinds of volcanic rock. Today we saw just about the full spectrum, passing through particulary nice obsidian flows and some impressive pumice fields on the Wickup Plain. Rock Mesa looked like a gigantic tiday wave of rock, frozen in place and towering 400 ft above the trail.

Tomorrow we leave the Sisters behind us (and hopefully the snow) and drop down to several large lake filled basins. It's probably going to be very buggy there - hopefully the insect repellent will last!

Big Lake Youth Camp - 2001.6mi to Campo

We perservered through all the snow and route finding challenges and made it to Big Lake Youth Camp yesterday around 1pm. I really can't say enough about the generous hospitality of the people here at the camp. From the moment we walked up we were approached by the friendly faces who helped us find our way. From the office staff who got our package to the friendly staffer who brought me iced lemonade while I was waiting out in the sun, everyone was great.

Sandy, the clinic supervisor, helped us refresh our first aid kit. Brandon showed me the trail heading south and gave invaluable data on snow conditions around Mt. Washington and Three Sisters. The wranglers shared several meals with us (indoors of course) and were loads of fun. Deanna, the laundry gal, so kindly washed our stinky clothes and even folded them! Pastor Monty gave us a very warm welcome and was always checking up on us to make sure there wasn't anything else they could help us with. All in all, I really can't say enough about the people here. I highly recommend this as a resupply/rest stop to any thru-hikers. It's a little oasis out here in the wilderness.

So we're taking another "zero day" today, giving our feet a little time off and maybe having a little R&R - I hear they have Frisbee golf here! Our next section is only is only ~88 miles. While only 18 miles shorter than our last, it sounds quite a bit shorter to us. Hopefully our feet continue to hold together and keep carrying us towards Mexico!

Trail Angels - 2010.6mi Campo

Today we got off to a bit of a slow start, but in the end it was overall a fantastic day. We spent a good half hour trying to find our way out of Shale Lake where we had camped. After that, patchy snow kept our pace low, but we still made decent time. We got on the Old Oregon Skyline Trail today, which will help us avoid steep snow slopes on Three Fingered Jack. The trail was fairly overgrown and rocky until we reached Marioin Lake, the largest lake in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness. Shortly after this point, we ran into our first Trail Angels - Jeff and Kate. Jeff was an off-duty ranger and had hauled in some beer for a friend who worked in the area. He hadn't been able to find him though, so I found myself enjoying a nice Black Butte Porter out on the trail. Kate also shared some apple slices with Arij and myself. Fresh food never tasted so good - that was the best apple I ever had!

We hiked together for a good 3-4 miles before parting ways at Jorn Lake. We hiked a bit further, camping at Dixie Lake for the night, ending a solid 19mi day and putting us just 9 miles from Big Lake, where our next resupply is at. Showers, lanudry, and Frisbee golf here we come!

The Snowman Hath Returneth - 2040.1 mi Campo

Yesterday we woke up in the middle of a cloud. Misting everywhere made finding dry tinder for our stove difficult. After a quick oatmeal breakfast, we broke our soggy camp and headed out. We made good time for the first 7-8 miles, hiking past many, many lakes in the fog. We ran into solid snow at about 6,100', however, and it didn't relent until we broke through the pass at 6,920' and switched from northern to southern slopes. It was short lived though, as the snow came back with a vengeance. We were unable to follow the trail and so ended up trekking cross-country as we descended into Jefferson Park. Which, even being at 5,900', was also filled with snow. Compass travel brought us to Scout Lake where we ate dinner and decided to call the day done.

It was a very cold night. Dropping to probably around 25 degrees F. The lakes were certainly more frozen when we woke up this morning. Thankfully, the sun is out today. Fantastic views of Mt. Jefferson. Taking the morning slow, trying to dry out our shoes as much as possible. Well, time to fry up some bacon and hashbrowns! We've got a long day today. Hopefully we'll descend out of this snow shortly. We are probably going to take the Old Oregon Skyline Trail to bypass West/NW 6,400' slopes by Three Fingered Jack.

Zero Day - 2053.1 to Campo

Today is a zero day. Zero mileage. Zero work. Just some time to rest, relax, and rejuvenate. We've been making good mileage the last 3 days. Yesterday we hiked approx. 19 miles by 4:20pm. Less than 7 hours of hiking time. Not too bad. We like the uphills more than the downhills. Downhill terrain really hurts Arij's blisters.

We've stopped to rest here at Olallie Lake Resort. Don't let the name fool you however, it's really just a glorified campground. There is a small store here though - beer, soda, Ding Dongs, Mac 'N Cheese, frozen burritos. You k now, all that good healthy stuff.

We've camped just outside the campground at Head Lake. Nice place to swim, wash all the grime off. There's a great view of Mt. Jefferson from Olallie Lake - too bad today is also our first cloudy day!

Oregon has thus far been snow free, but it has brought several new challenges. mosquitoes mosquitos and humidity. Bug repellent and baby powder are very useful here. We hoped there would be some fireworks last night, but no luck there. It was a silent 4th of July. Lots of people out and about though. We've seen a great many on the trail and at stops, being a holiday weekend and all.

We're over halfway through this section. Just 3 more days and we'll be at our next resupply. They apparently have showers and a laundromat! Woo Hoo!

Oregon is not very scenic. I think we had 2 views of Mt. Hood and 1 of Mt. Jefferson before we got to Oallie Lake. The trees all seem very stunted also. It is very different than Washington. There have been lot's of lake though, which makes up for the lack of scenery. Swimming is great. Head Lake where we are spending our rest day has a floating dock. You can reel it in and jump on it and then let it float back out. The water feels amazing after a day of hiking. Patrick has this strange phobia of swimming in lakes. He won't fully submerge. Kind of funny really. Had to threaten him to get him to wash the grime off his face. Well the water is too tempting. Think I am going for a swim before dinner.




July 1 - Timberline













July 2 - Mt Hood area





















July 3
















July 4

On the Road Again - 2105.0 mi to Campo

Got back on the trail today after a long odyssey of public and private transportation. Parents drove us to the ferry terminals, took the 7:55am ferry to Seattle followed by a 9:45am train to Portland (which was 1 hour late), where we had a bus/taxi take us up to Timberline Lodge on the southern slopes of Mt. Hood, finally arriving around 5:00pm.













We picked up our supply package at Timberline, had a great dinner at the bar in the lodge, then hiked about 2.5 miles to a nice wooded campsite. Trails look open and snow free from here! Wonder what sort of mileage we’ll make when we don’t have snow or major route finding problems?

We had a pitcher of root beer at the lodge. Talk about suger shock! My tummy was not thanking me. It was a long day to get back to the trail. I feel excited and also hesitant. I am really praying for no snow.

Happy Birthday Arij! - ??? to Campo

Arij’s birthday was today! We had a nice dinner at the Ajax Café in Port Hadlock where we wore funny hats (the tradition at the Ajax), followed by Cake and presents at home.

Wonderful time!

Escape! - ~2330mi to campo

Well, we hiked out today, via the old and underused Fog trail. Descend on the trail for a while before losing it in the snow, then had to resort to following game trails to make our way down the rest of the moderately steep slope to get the an old logging road that would dump us out on Hwy 410. There was, on the map, a campground there called Morse Creek Campground, at which I figured we'd be able to get a phone call made, or at the very least pick up some water. It turns out that campground is gone - doesn't appear to exist anymore! So we started hiking up the highway, towards Chinook Pass about 8 miles away. The blazing sun overhead certainly didn't help. Strangely enough, we couldn't pay someone to pick us up. Hitchhiking attempts for 2 hours resulted in nothing more than stares as we plugged our way uphill. It's wierd, we're out in the middle of nowhere, 50 miles from the closest town, and nobody would stop to help. Wouldn't you stop to help two nice looking hikers on the side of the road? I started to joke that maybe Arij should lie down on the ground and I'd start performing CPR... maybe somebody would stop. Scarily enough, I wouldn't be surprised if people drove right on by. FINALLY, somebody did stop. Arij will point out that they did because they were military - a guy and his wife from Ft Lewis stopped and picked us up. We were sooo grateful to finally get picked up. They drove us up to the pass, but there were no phones there. They were looking for a gas station anyways, so they just took us with them to the little town of Greenwater (could a backwater town name be any more obvious?). We placed a few strategic phone calls and arranged for our rescue. After looking online tonight it appears that there's a major fire closure along the PCT where it starts at the Washington-Oregon border, so we may have to skip all the way ahead to Timberline Lodge, Mt Hood, Oregon. That would be section 4, so we'd be cutting out segments 2 and 3 (and about 200 miles). Not too bad, I suppose.

We learned a few things in this section. Most importantly, that we can definately do this. Even with dealing with major routefinding issues and snowy trails, we managed to pull off 17 mile days. Imagine how fast we would have been going on clear trail! We're going to get to campo.

Oh noes! Snow! - 2339.2mi to campo

Today started out great. Bit of a long stretch between water, but the spring at Big Crow Basin was fantastically clear and cold. Had lunch there - our first soup lunch day! Mmmmmmmmmmm. Potato soup! It was soooo good. Scout pass was the high point of the day, shortly after, up at 6530', but it wasn't too bad. However, we quickly ran into more problems. The trail between Bullion Pass and Blue Bell Pass was a nightmare. It turned from hiking over snow to climbing over snow. We had to traverse 45degree snow slopes - in our tennis shoes and trekking poles! Lots of slow and ponderous step kicking ensued to guarantee our safe travel, but made it excruciatingly slow. 45 degree snow slopes are no joke, especially when you've got a bad runout. It reminded me more of spring mountaineering trips than summer hiking! We managed to perservere to the trail junction just south of Crown Point, only to see that the trial only got worse after that. So it was with heavy hearts that we opted to hike down tomorrow to Hwy 410 and hitchhike to the nearest phone. Looks like we're going to have to skip Washington and start in Oregon.

Mailing Addresses for Patrick & Arij

Patrick wanted me to post the addresses where you can send mail (or treats!). I've included stops approximately every 2 weeks so you can have your pick. Please note that the date shown is the day they they INTEND to pick up their mail. So, if you mail something to them you should send it at least 1 week ahead of their arrival date. Or if you are the safe and cautious type, make it 2 weeks. Also, be sure to put on the letter or box the following: "HOLD FOR PCT HIKER - ARRIVAL ON (the date I've listed below).

1. July 6
Timberline Ski Area
Wy'East Store
Timberline Lodge, OR 97028
Phone: (503) 272-3311 x426

2. July 19
Crater Lake National Park Post Office
Crater Lake, OR 97604

3. August 3
Post Office
20115 Castle Creek Road
Castella, CA 96017
Phone: (530) 235-4413

4. August 14
General Delivery
Belden, CA 95915
Phone: (530) 283-0951

5. August 31
Tuolumne Meadows Station
Yosemite National Park, CA 95389
Phone: (209) 372-0263

6. September 14
Kennedy Meadows General Store
PO Box 3A5
Inyokern, CA 93527

7. September 30
Post Office
1440 Highway 2
Wrightwood, CA 92397
Phone: (760) 249-8882

8. October 11
Post Office
31650 Highway 79
Warner Springs, CA 92086
Phone: (760) 782-3166

Rolling along - 2352.7mi to Campo

Two 17+ mile days in a row - woohoo! We continue to run into navigation problems (lots of snow), but we just are getting faster at dealing with them. Came across a huge burn area today called "Fall Creek Burn". 1989, 3000+ acres, courtesy of loggers. :( Also came across a great place called Camp Urich at Government Meadows, nice cabin, beautiful meadows, gorgeous creek. We also weathered through our first "water alert" ; 14.6 mi without a water source. The spring at the end of the dry spell was picturesque - water never looked better.

So let's take a toll of my afflictions... I have one sunbruned hand from the trekking pole. I swallowed 2 bugs from talking while hiking. I have 6 blisters. Patrick says I should name them. I think that would give them a sense of permanance and I want them to go away, ASAP. The pain was really bad at one point so I ended up hiking in my flip flops for about 5 mi. Lastly, I have between 12-14 mosquito bites. All and all I am having the time of my life. Oh yeah, the food cravings have already started. When we were at the idyllic little spring I started to imagine it was flowing blue cheese dressing. Sounds yucky to you I am sure, but it was a GREAT fantasy!